


Enough

by teamchaosprez



Series: With the Stars and Us [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: Amnesia, Anxiety, Dark Hour (Persona 3), Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon, Semi-Persona (Re)Awakening, Shadows (Persona Series), Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25763017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: Junpei was supposed to be home from Shadow Ops business by six, but it's rapidly approaching midnight, and Chidori can't sleep.(Don't worry about the series. This fic is unrelated to the others aside from being in the same timeline.)
Relationships: Iori Junpei/Yoshino Chidori
Series: With the Stars and Us [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721764
Kudos: 23





	Enough

**Author's Note:**

> i have jundori brainworms  
> this takes place not long after ultimax. i think every day about him daydreaming about proposing in his story

Chidori didn’t remember much of what her life was like before she was sixteen years old.

She knew what Junpei and his friends - her friends now, in a sort of roundabout way - had explained to her, at least on a base level. That she had been a victim of human experimentation, and that was why she had some chronic pain and got sick easily at times. She had once held the power of a Persona, Medea, and had once been a part of a cult of other Persona users that wanted the end of the world to come about, that the philosophy of her and her group had been one of nihilism.

In November 2009, she was told, Junpei got shot. It was near instantly fatal.

She used the power of her Persona to bring him back to life - and she died as a result, at least for a little while. Mitsuru, the apparent acting leader of the Persona users that made up Junpei’s friend group, explained to her that the hospital put flowers on her body as a sign of respect, and that she must have absorbed the life from them unconsciously to bring herself back to life. That last bit of Medea’s power must have removed her Persona for good, and any memory of ever having one.

From what she heard, Medea was a massive part of her life from the ages of three to sixteen. So it made sense she no longer recalled much of anything about before she lost her.

The Persona users Junpei worked with still worked hard fighting Shadows. It made sense - they were doing it to make sure people who  _ didn’t _ have access to Personas could stay safe. They were doing something good, something honorable, something she was honestly proud her fiancé was good at. Between that and his little league coaching, they could have their nice little house near Inaba and she could afford to go to art school, so it was a good investment financially as well.

That didn’t mean she didn’t worry when it was ten minutes to midnight and he was supposed to be back from the mission he was on by six in the afternoon. She had full confidence that he would be fine - he was strong, he was smarter than he let on, and he was in equally good and smart - if not more so - company. She was  _ sure _ he would be alright, and he was just late because of train delays or something.

No matter how much she tried to tell herself that, she had a genuinely difficult time believing it.

At around eleven at night, her usual time, she tried laying down to get some sleep. She couldn’t - no matter what she did, all she could seem to think about was her fiancé, the love of her life, hurt or suffering in some strange other world. Left alone to die, forgotten in a rush to escape a sticky situation.

There was no way she would ever be able to sleep, so she got out of bed and walked over to the room that had been repurposed into a studio for her canvases and art projects.

The strokes of her brush were soothing, at least for a little while. She painted a field of yellow flowers, just caught in the middle of a summer breeze; it was nowhere near finished, but she could almost feel the afternoon sun warming her skin, almost hear the gentle rustling of the plants in the wind.

Chidori let out a soft and contented sigh, and let herself get swept up in working on her art. Swept up enough in it that she didn’t notice when the clock ticked from 11:59 to 12:00 and the world around her shifted. She only barely recognized that the lighting in the house had gone from the soft blues and whites of an average night to a faint, sickly green - and that, she shrugged at. She was just imagining things because of the late hour and her wandering mind, surely.

There was a loud crash at the front door, and she jumped, stepping back from her canvas. Chidori blinked and slowly set down her brush; she turned around quickly.

The door to the studio was open, and the house’s front door was visible from where she stood. She was just trying to explain the crash to herself in her mind - sometimes birds crashed into the windows, so maybe one had flown at their door? Or maybe it was a wild animal that didn’t notice it was about to hit the house - it wouldn’t be the first time that happened.

She realized, as she stared at the front door, that it was left unlocked for Junpei. The area they lived in was safe and they didn’t have any neighbors for about a mile in any direction, so she could occasionally forget to lock the door and windows.

The artist let out a slow breath, and realized that she would have to go over and investigate, make sure that whatever had hit the door wouldn’t be able to get into the house.

She was quick to rush to the front door and lock it, but as she let go of the doorknob curiosity took her over. Chidori was sure that she was safe in the house now, and she wanted to see what was going on - so she leaned forward and looked out the peephole of the door.

Whatever was out there, it wasn’t human; it was a shadowy mass of limbs, the faint glint of a mask the only thing it had in place of a mask. Chidori jumped back from the door, her breath catching in her throat and her hand clenching into a fist against her chest. Her heart was pounding about a million miles an hour… she doubted that was healthy.

_ You have to calm down. You have seen this a million times before. _

The thought that rang through her head sounded as though it was her voice, but… not. It was different… calmer, more reverberating. Almost threatening, if she was being honest.

Her head felt like it was splitting open. She fell to her knees, clutching it in her hands and bunching her hair up in her fists. Chidori forced herself to breathe slowly and keep herself calm, closing her eyes so that as little of the outside world was getting through to her as possible.

_ I never truly left you. I am thou and thou art I, after all. For me to return to you now would surely cause your health to go downhill once more, though… you are not capable of my power, and if we’re being honest, you never were. _

“I’m not asking for your power,” she replied aloud without really meaning to. “You’re a Persona, right? Junpei and the others have told me about you. You wanted me dead. I just want to live a normal life and work on my art… that’s all.”

_ I’d like to correct you on that.  _ We _ wanted you dead. I am a reflection of your thoughts and feelings… nothing that I say or do is completely original to me. It all comes from you. _

She knew, logically, that there was no point in arguing with it. She couldn’t deny anything it said - she supposed it made sense that her Persona knew what she felt deep down, and she didn’t remember enough to say that she never wanted harm to come to herself. What Chidori knew was that none of that was the case any longer - she was happy, at least relatively so, and she could live her life in peace with someone she loved very much.

Things were as normal as they could be for someone who had apparently been denied education or a normal childhood until she was sixteen, and she was happy with that.

Thinking through all of this, she could assume that it was the Dark Hour that she’d heard a bit about. Shadows weren’t smart enough to open doors - or at least, she assumed that they weren’t based on the few stories Junpei told her about his escapades - so she was safe as long as she was in the house. She usually slept through it anyway, so it must usually be relatively uneventful.

She was only aware of it now because she was up late worrying about Junpei. She knew this probably shouldn’t be making her more annoyed with him for coming home hours after he said he would with no warning, but it did.

_ Don’t you want my power back? You could go with him when he leaves and make sure that he’s safe. If he gets hurt, you can heal him. We were stronger before, you know. _

It was so difficult to ignore such a loud and blaring voice in her mind, but all she could do was try. Chidori let out a shaky breath and got to her feet, turning on her heel so that she could return to her studio and keep working on the damn painting. That was the only thing she could feel comfortable doing right now; the only hope she had to calm her nerves and maybe tune out Medea’s voice.

_ Such a waste. _

The Persona trying to awaken kept making a fuss in her mind as she worked, and she could tell by the shaking of her hands that this piece was never going to be good enough to sell, but at least it was keeping her sufficiently busy. She must have been near the door for longer than she realized - or maybe she was just so wrapped up in painting that she didn’t realize the passage of time - because not long after she started working, the lighting of the world returned to normal.

And then, moments later, she could hear the front door open.

She’d heard Junpei get back enough times that she knew what he sounded like, and so she wasted little time in running out of the room and into his arms. He caught her without much trouble and held her tight; “Woah, Chidorita, what are you doing up so late?” he asked, and she hated that the feeling of his hand running through her hair was so soothing and made him so easy to forgive.

“You were supposed to be home hours ago. I was worried about you, I couldn’t sleep,” she scolded him and pulled away, looking up at him with furrowed brows. “Junpei, did the Dark Hour just happen? Everything looked green all of a sudden, and I think there was a Shadow at the door…”

His face went from concerned to panicked within moments, and his hands grabbed at her shoulders. “Yeah, it did. Are you okay? Nothing got in the house and hurt you, right? Did anything weird happen during the Dark Hour at all?”

“No, I made sure the door was locked as soon as I heard something crashing against it,” she replied with a shake of her head. “I did hear something in my head that sort of sounded like me, but not really. I think it was Medea. I don’t think I really have her back, but…”

Her voice trailed off, and within moments he was holding her tight again. She could feel how tense he was against her, how protective his grip on her was. Any annoyance at him for coming home late she still held onto faded in the face of how much she could tell he cared.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, Chidorita,” he murmured, his voice soft as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. She clung to him, burying her face against his throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was going to be back late. My phone died, and a few different roads were closed because of construction or accidents. I should have found some way to reach you…”

She shook her head; “I was probably worrying too much.”

“No, we’re a team and I know what I was out doing was dangerous. I should’ve known you would get worried about me.” He pressed a gentle kiss against her hairline, and she sighed softly through her nose. “It’ll never happen again. I promise. Even if my phone gets smashed, I’ll steal one from a stranger so that I can call and tell you what’s going on.”

She let out a quiet laugh. “Please don’t do that.”

“I’m going to, and there’s nothing the phone’s rightful owner can do to stop me.” He pulled away just a bit, one arm still wrapped around her waist as he brushed some of her long hair out of her face. “Let’s just go to bed for tonight, okay? In the morning, we can call Mitsuru and ask her about how you heard Medea talking to you. I’m sure it’s probably nothing to worry about, though.”

She nodded, and let him lead her to the bedroom. As they settled into bed to finally get some hard earned rest, she found herself the most relaxed she’d been in weeks.

Chidori’s final thought before drifting off to sleep was how lucky she was to have someone so oddly calming and always understanding by her side.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! please kudos/comment if you enjoyed!


End file.
